The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain

This unique collection of Twain's essential short stories and semiautobiographical narratives is a testament to the author's vast imagination. Featuring popular tales such as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” as well as some delightful excerpts from The Diaries of Adam and Eve, this compilation also includes darker works written in the author's twilight years. These selections illuminate the depth of Twain's artistry, humor, irony, and narrative genius.

LAWRRENCE I. BERKOVE, this volume's editor, is a professor of English at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and a noted authority on Mark Twain. He has published groundbreaking essays on Twain's major novels, short fiction, travel literature, and religious values. PETE HAMILL, this volume's introducer, is a journalist, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story writer, and the author of A Drinking Life: A Memoir and Why Sinatra Matters. His ten novels include Snow in August and Forever. He lives in New York City.